(no subject)
Last week was really fun and interesting though. In art history class we got to do Shoudou, which is basically Japanese calligraphy, except a bit more artistic. The teacher who came in that week also has his own school, so I'm thinking I might take some lessons from him. I really enjoyed it.
In addition to that, I went to some meetings of the Women's Studies club which involved ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) on one day and cooking on another day. I might join the cooking portion of the club.
Finally, this past weekend we went to Mt. Koya, which is the site of some very old Buddhist temples and a large cemetery, among other things. It was really cool to see all the architecture and graves and mausoleums. They even had the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa, who was the first Tokugawa shogun. The place we stayed was really cool too, since it was very Japanese-style with tatami mats and the like. Because Buddhist monks (or priests, I'm not sure) lived there, we ate vegetarian meals, which were surprisingly delicious. Also, contrary to what you might think, the monks/priests had some pretty nice cars.
I of course have taken pictures of all these things, and I'm gonna try to get them all online pretty soon. When I do, I'll post a link.
In other news,
I'm not too happy with the Japanese program here. As one student put it, the teachers are bad and the book is worse. The grammatical explanations always seem a bit lacking (depends on the day though; the teachers are different almost everyday) and the classes and the book just don't feel very well-structured or organized. Mostly though, I would prefer a bit more speaking practice the way we had at Pitt. Repeating after a model helps make new grammar structures become natural, but we don't really have that. (Hey Theo, any progress on those JSL 3 files? :D) A lot of the study this year is going to have to be done on my own. The classes just don't feel like they'll improve my Japanese much at all (the way Pitt classes do).
Anyway, that's it for now!
(By the way, if you're viewing my page, it is best to view it in Firefox, because the text backround scrolls in IE)
In addition to that, I went to some meetings of the Women's Studies club which involved ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) on one day and cooking on another day. I might join the cooking portion of the club.
Finally, this past weekend we went to Mt. Koya, which is the site of some very old Buddhist temples and a large cemetery, among other things. It was really cool to see all the architecture and graves and mausoleums. They even had the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa, who was the first Tokugawa shogun. The place we stayed was really cool too, since it was very Japanese-style with tatami mats and the like. Because Buddhist monks (or priests, I'm not sure) lived there, we ate vegetarian meals, which were surprisingly delicious. Also, contrary to what you might think, the monks/priests had some pretty nice cars.
I of course have taken pictures of all these things, and I'm gonna try to get them all online pretty soon. When I do, I'll post a link.
In other news,
I'm not too happy with the Japanese program here. As one student put it, the teachers are bad and the book is worse. The grammatical explanations always seem a bit lacking (depends on the day though; the teachers are different almost everyday) and the classes and the book just don't feel very well-structured or organized. Mostly though, I would prefer a bit more speaking practice the way we had at Pitt. Repeating after a model helps make new grammar structures become natural, but we don't really have that. (Hey Theo, any progress on those JSL 3 files? :D) A lot of the study this year is going to have to be done on my own. The classes just don't feel like they'll improve my Japanese much at all (the way Pitt classes do).
Anyway, that's it for now!
(By the way, if you're viewing my page, it is best to view it in Firefox, because the text backround scrolls in IE)